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  Fred Thompson's Boredom
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ContributorServo 
Last EditedServo  Oct 04, 2007 03:55pm
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News DateThursday, October 4, 2007 09:55:00 PM UTC0:0
DescriptionThe United States Senate has long been known as the World's Greatest Deliberative Body. Under the Constitution, it has a great deal of power and responsibility—confirming judges, ambassadors and Cabinet officers, ratifying treaties and serving as a trial court in impeachment cases.

Lots of lower-level politicians would consider a term there the apex of a career. Plenty of youngsters with an interest in government dream of someday sitting in that exalted chamber. Several American statesmen with higher aspirations—including Henry Clay, Robert Taft, Barry Goldwater and Ted Kennedy—have found they could make history without ever leaving the Senate.

And then there is Fred Thompson, who saw it as a waste of his time. Back in 1998, only four years after being elected, he was out of patience. "I don't like spending 14- and 16-hour days voting on 'sense of the Senate' resolutions on irrelevant matters," he snorted. "There are some important things we really need to get on with—and on a daily basis, it's very frustrating."

When his seat came up in 2002, the Tennessee Republican chose not to run again, which he now takes as a badge of honor. Asked recently by National Review to name his most important accomplishments in office, he replied, "You mean, besides leaving the Senate?"
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